Amazon has recently announced a free SDK for it’s Kindle e-book reader. Amazon defines this as an effort to allow developers to create apps and sell “active content” over the Kindle Store. The exact details on what Amazon means to say by “active content” is still not clear though.
The SDK being called the Kindle Development Kit will be available as a limited beta next month. The SDK will include a programming interfaces, tools and a documentation to help the app development process. The kit also includes a Kindle simulator which lets developers test their apps and also submit finished content to Amazon.
The development tool and the Kindle Simulator is available for all Mac, PC and Linux. It is unclear how much the device can permit interaction with the SDK and the apps. The Kindle SDK will be available in two phases. In the first phase, the SDK will be available to people for download and develop apps on and in the second phase, those wait-listed for a demo will be invited to test the SDK. You can sign up for a notification of the beta release at this page.
Amazon is looking forward to its Kindle e-book as it recorded a sale of more e-books than hard-copy books at the store last year. This SDK is just an attempt to attract more users by engaging more developers into the build process.

Chinmoy Kanjilal is a FOSS enthusiast and evangelist. He is passionate about Android. Security exploits turn him on and he loves to tinker with computer networks. He rants occasionally at Techarraz.com. You can connect with him on Twitter @ckandroid.